Palmerston Residents Association Commemoration Campaign For William Homes Smiles and Gustav Wilhelm Wolff Founders of the Belfast Rope Works

William Homes Smiles, who founded the Belfast Rope Works in the early 1870s,was the son of Dr Samual Smiles,the author of the Victorian classic,Self Help. William Smiles lived at Westbank House on the Palmerston Road Sydenham Belfast Co Antrim Northern Ireland. Mrs Lucy Smiles was half sister to Mrs Beeton the Victorian cookery expert. The Smiles family had eleven children. William Smiles and Gustav Wolff of Harland and Wolff Belfast founded the Belfast Rope Works in the second World War one third of the ropes required by the war office (a quarter of a million tons were made at the Belfast Rope Works, in addition it manufactured 50,000 camouflage and cargo nets. The Smiles family give a lot to Northern Ireland they also give their two sons who were both killed in action 2nd Lieutenant Samuel Smiles1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. killed in Action 16th August 1917, aged 36 years, and Captain William Alan Smiles 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, killed in Action 9th July 1916 aged 34 years Lt-Col.Sir Walter Dorling Smiles CIE DSO ( 8 November 1883-31 January 1953) was a member of Parliament for Blackburn from1931 to 1945 Smiles was re-elected in 1935 but stood for Down Northern Ireland in the 1945 Westminister election as a Unionist. The constituency was split in 1950 into North and South Down. Smiles won North Down that year and remained its MP until his death in 1953. He lost his life in the sinking of the Princess Victoria of Larne Lough in the Great Storm. The Palmerston Residents Association wants to have this great family commemorated at the site where Westbank House once stood at Palmerston Road Sydenham before it was demolished to make way for a new development. The Palmerston Residents Association have made contact with Wesley Housing Association Ltd who now own the new development seeking their agreement to have some type of commemoration at the new site to enable our children and our visitors to see where this great family once lived and to mark their place in Northern Ireland History. At present we are at odds with Wesley Housing Association where we would like the commemoration placed, they feel it would be better on the inside of the building but we feel it should take its place on the outside of the building in the grounds to enable every one to veiw it. We will keep you updated on our campaign to have this family properly commemorated for the people of Sydenham and Ireland Northern and assuring their place in our history